Learn to Fall in Love with Writing Again

For me, it was the safety of it. Writing always felt like the only place I could really be myself—my messy, confused, convoluted self. Maybe it was the same for you.

Or maybe it was grief that drove you to the page.

Maybe it was desperation or pain or frustration. I don’t know.

But if you’re anything like me, the honeymoon phase with writing has come and gone.

At first it seemed so cathartic and easy, didn’t it?

You pictured yourself escaping someday to a cabin for a weekend, sitting perched at your computer with a cup of coffee in hand, sun streaming in. The birds would chirp. Lake water would lick the shore. Wind would blow through the grass and words would flow through your fingers like lightning.

Photo credit: Victor Bezrukov, Creative Commons

Brilliance would be so easy!

Instead, it’s more like this: you drag your tired butt out of bed at 5:00am, tripping over kid’s toys and re-warming your old, cold coffee (because you didn’t have time to make new stuff). You sit down to your computer and pose there, ready to record what comes to mind.

But the only thing that comes is garbage. Total garbage.

Before long, you’re asking yourself, “why am I doing this? Is this a waste of time? Does this even matter?”

Not exactly the love story you pictured, is it?

But here’s the thing. If you want to reignite with your passion with writing, you’re going to have to put aside all the tips and techniques. Not forever. Just for now.

If you want to rediscover your love affair with writing, you’re going to need to go back to the basics. You’ll need to uncover (or recover if you’ve had it before and lost it) your unique voice.

When we can discover our voice as writers, we have the power to do just about anything we want.

Uncovering your unique voice as a writer isn’t easy. There’s no formula or step-by-step process. It’s not about memorizing a list of tips or techniques or tricks.

Even some of the most well-trained writers haven’t accomplished this.

But the value of uncovering your unique voice as a writer is this:

1. It will build your confidence as a writer.

Again, even the most well-trained authors don’t necessarily understand their unique voice, or what sets them apart as a writer. But my guess is, the writers you love—the ones who have written books you can’t put down—are those who understand their voice.

They know their message. They know themselves. They know how to connect with an audience.

It doesn’t take years of training to be confident in yourself as a writer. But it does take this: an understanding of what sets you apart.

How much time have you spent thinking about what sets you apart?

2. It fuels your creative energy.

Something really wonderful happens when you begin to gain confidence in your unique voice. Suddenly, you have an energy when you come to the page.

You aren’t trying to ration your energy, or guard it, or save it for later.

Because you’ll find your creative energy is renewable.

3. It gives you permission to write for writing’s sake.

For a long time I thought I would feel like a “real” writer when I got a degree, or when I made a bunch of money doing it, or when I had a publisher, or when I published my first book. But even when I finished doing those things, I still didn’t feel like a real “writer”.

It wasn’t until I began uncovering my voice as a writer that I realized:

Far better than any book contract, any amount of fame or notoriety, any level of success was the feeling that I knew my strengths as a writer, was able to share my story in a way that was honest and clear, and could see how my story connected to a wider audience.

Are you interested in discovering your unique voice as a writer?

If so, I’m gathering a group of writers to walk through the process together in an online course I created called Find Your Writing Voice.

The course will last 4 weeks and will be packed with assignments, activities and lessons guiding you through your own process to rediscover your love for writing. It’s going to be really fun and enlightening as we work together to re-discover why we love this crazy, fun, exciting confusing process so much.

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3 thoughts on “Learn to Fall in Love with Writing Again”

This is great Allison, quite timely in fact. I never really looked at writing as a relationship before, in the sense of it going through a honeymoon phase. But that’s exactly what I am experiencing, feeling, now; that phase is over. The most frustrating part of it all is I know the feeling I have when writing is exactly the feeling I seek, but yet, for some reason, to authentically pour my truth on the page is becoming harder and harder. To wake up at 5, to sit at my desk, to punch the keys is becoming more and more difficult. Thanks for this post. Eric

writing thrives on new experience and drama. if life gets routine and dull, so will the writing. those who want writing to remain a passionate love affair need to search out new ways of being, whether it’s traveling to another country or just joining a new club or meeting a new person.